This invention relates to a beam welding terminal structure which can firmly weld or connect a connection member to be connected, such as a wire, by irradiation of a beam such as a laser beam, while holding the connection member from opposite sides thereof.
FIG. 20 shows a conventional beam welding terminal structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 59-107786.
This structure is formed integrally on a front end portion of an electrically-conductive plate 30 such as a bus bar, and a pair of holding walls 32 and 32 for holding a wire 5, such as a thin nickel wire, therebetween are formed upright on opposite sides of a bottom plate portion 31, respectively. The height of the holding walls 32 is generally equal to the diameter of the wire 5, and laser beams 6 and 6 are applied respectively to points (intimate contact portions) of contact of the pair of holding walls 32 and 32 with the wire 5, as illustrated, thereby welding or connecting upper portions of the holding walls 32 to the wire 5.
In the above structure, however, the welding must be effected for each of the pair of holding walls 32 and 32, and therefore there has been encountered a problem that much time and labor are required. Therefore, there has been made an attempt in which only one of the pair of holding walls 32 is welded as shown in FIGS. 21 and 22 (a wire diameter d: 0.8 mm; a test product used: the thickness of holding wall 32: 0.8 mm, the height h of holding wall 32: 0.72 mm=0.9d), in which case a fused portion 33 is small, and therefore the welding strength is low, thus inviting a problem that this structure is not suited for practical use.
With the above problems in view, it is an object of this invention to provide a beam welding terminal structure in which much time and labor are not required for welding a connection member to be connected, such as a wire, and besides the connection member can be firmly welded.